1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to belt conveyers and belt conveyer systems. More particularly, the invention relates to a belt conveyer system for conveying articles between vertically and horizontally spaced apart locations.
2. Description of the Prior Art
U.S. Pat. No. 3,545,598, entitled "Laterally Flexible Belt Conveyor", describes a corrugated, V-shaped belt designed to follow a path with sharp lateral curvature. The belt is formed with corrugations that allow the belt to bend around corners. End portions of the belt protrude upwardly so that the center of the belt forms a trough for carrying articles. A cable core is provided in a central portion of the belt that provides both resilience and resistance to stretching. The central portion of the belt appears to have a flat surface and all of the corrugations have the same height. Thus, the belt is not designed to carry articles between vertically spaced apart locations.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,836,283, entitled "Belt Conveyor System", describes a belt system designed to follow a laterally curved path. The belt is supported by a central pulling or traction member which has a central cable core to reduce elongation. The belt has corrugations that allow it to bend around corners. The belt, however, is not designed to convey articles between vertically spaced apart locations.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,910,404, entitled "Conveying Means", describes the use of drive pins and sprocket wheels to drive a belt. The drive pins, however, do not guide movement of the belt to and from the sprocket wheels.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,925,165, entitled "Belt", describes a belt in which a plurality or ribs are positioned between adjacent cleats of greater height. According to the patent, the cleats cooperate with the ribs to support packages and are designed to engage and arrest sliding motion of an article with respect to the ribs. The heights of the ribs, however, are constant so that conveyed articles will not tend to be concentrated in the center of the belt.
Other types of conveying belts and systems are described in U.S. Pat. No. 874,982, entitled "Conveyer Belt"; U.S. Pat. No. 2,818,965, entitled "Runway for Conveyor Belts Passing Through Curves; U.S. Pat. No. 3,245,518, entitled "Belt With Integrally Molded Teeth and Vanes"; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,205,745, entitled "Conveyor Loading Station".